When the ancient Polynesians invented surfing, they often used a paddle to help them navigate. Fast-forward a few millennia, and Stand-Up Paddleboarding, or SUP, finds itself trendy again. Part of its increasing popularity is that standing upright allows surfers to spot waves more easily and thus catch more of them, multiplying the fun factor. Paddling back to the wave becomes less of a strain as well. The ability to cruise along on flat inland water, surveying the sights, is another advantage. Finally, its a good core workout. If youre sold on the idea, schedule an intro SUP lesson, free with board and paddle rental, and you may find yourself riding the waves like a Polynesian king.More

Many of us remember coming home from our elementary schools with freshly glazed pinchpots, cups, or whatever else our young imaginations could conjure up. Saturday mornings at the Randall Museum can bring that memory back, or create a new one for the youngsters. Ceramics make great gifts — especially on Mothers' and Fathers' Day. Hop on board for the Randall's once-weekly class, and for $6 and two weeks to have your work fired and glazed, you'll have all the materials you need.More

The sinews of old San Francisco lie in the water: the posts standing in the Bay mud that supported the docks and piers where the shipping that made the city possible, and later allowed it to flourish, flowed.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

I've been known to strongly defend Twitter, which some people have found surprising because of my default digital skepticism. But of course, I was skeptical of it at first (if nothing else, because of the name, which is stupid), until I started using it. It really can be used for quite practical purposes by people who want to follow a particular topic area, and who carefully choose which accounts to follow.

If you do that, you rarely see people living up to the clichés of telling everyone what they had for lunch, how cute their pets are, or how cute (or terrible) Justin Bieber is. For a few years, I told people they should at least give Twitter a try if they were interested in news updates, especially if they were interested in a particular topic. It serves as a real-time, crowdsourced headline service like no other.

And yet, lately I've found myself using it less, and increasingly going back to my RSS feeds for news. RSS feeds -- full of professionally produced news that has been vetted and filtered by what digital triumphalist types derisively call "gatekeepers." Which is fine with me. Let a billion gatekeepers bloom. Because a Twitter feed, even one peopled entirely by professionals, many of them journalists ("gatekeepers," supposedly) ultimately is shallow. This, I have come to realize, is because Twitter tends to reinforce the insane notion that speed and volume are the two most important considerations in the dissemination of news and information.

This not only erodes the quality of the news we consume, it also
tends to inflate the importance of what should be minor events. Judging
solely by my Twitter feed last week, the decision by Apple to develop
its mobile maps product in-house rather than rely on Google Maps seemed
at least as important as J.P. Morgan's gargantuan trading losses or the
Republicans' decision to renege on their budget promises and propose
massive cuts to social-welfare programs. News items that once would have
been relegated to the "briefs" sections of trade magazines are now big
news, discussed and debated to death.

Another, related problem is the number of people who seem to be
obsessed with Twitter -- tweeting in some cases hundreds of times per
day. I have taken to unfollowing such people, because they wreck the
experience. But that also means that I miss the 5 percent of their
tweets that I might want want to see.

Many of the same people who spend all day, every day on Twitter are
also the ones who seem to want to almost anthropomorphize Twitter,
referring to it not only as a living being with human qualities, but as a
freedom-fighting hero. (In stories about the Arab Spring uprisings, the
people rising up and risking their lives were often given second
billing to the technologies they were using. Twitter and Facebook, those
are the real heroes.)

The reasons for my drifting away from Twitter (I'm not giving up on
it entirely yet) and back toward more filtered sources of news are
nicely exemplified by this blog post,
about how Obama's recent trip to Afghanistan was reported before the
administration wanted it to be. "Twitter broke the news, naturally,
thanks to a post from an Afghan news website..." the blogger tells us.

Twitter didn't break the news, naturally or otherwise; it was merely the platform on which the news was quickly disseminated. This
is worth noting, of course -- the speed with which Twitter and other
social media are able to spread news in unprecedented (to both good and
bad effect -- mostly bad, I'm beginning to think.) But the tone of so
many of these accounts is downright bizarre, with Twitter being referred
to almost as a god. The news in this case was broken by an Afghan
journalist, but that journalist, in this account, is a mere footnote to
the story. Twitter is what's more important, and the reality of what
really happened is, weirdly, acknowledged and dismissed all at the same
time.

If nothing else, I hope that relying more on traditional sources of
news will help keep me grounded. Our heads, after all, are already way
too full of useless crap, aren't they? As useful as the service might
be, being on Twitter all the time doesn't seem like a good way to
maintain a healthy, rational perspective.

Dan Mitchell has written for Fortune, the New York Times, Slate, Wired, National Public Radio, the Chicago Tribune, and many others.

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Sub Pop recording artists 'clipping.' brought their brand of noise-driven experimental hip hop to the closing night of 2016's San Francisco Electronic Music Fest this past Sunday. The packed Brava Theater hosted an initially seated crowd that ended the night jumping and dancing against the front of the stage. The trio performed a set focused on their recently released Sci-Fi Horror concept album, 'Splendor & Misery', then delved into their dancier and more aggressive back catalogue, and recent single 'Wriggle'.
Opening performances included local experimental electronic duo 'Tujurikkuja' and computer music artist 'Madalyn Merkey.'"